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Patent Information Users Group, Inc.

The International Society for Patent Information Professionals

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Patent Information Users Group, Inc.  The International Society for Patent Information Professionals


  1. Preliminary Program

The PIUG is pleased to announce the program (subject to change) at the Plenary Sessions for the PIUG 2023 Annual Conference. When planning your trip to the conference, please keep the following events in mind so that you do not miss out on a valuable opportunity.

PLEASE BE ADVISED that attendees and speakers who are not members of PIUG will not have post-conference access to the conference presentations posted on the PIUG website which is a PIUG member benefit. To enable post-conference access to PIUG conference presentations, and to also save significantly on PIUG conference registration fees, BECOME A MEMBER of PIUG by going to the PIUG Membership page.

Technical Session - Sunday through Wednesday

The PIUG would like to inform all conference attendees that the use of photographic or recording devices of any kind to create recordings of the conference proceedings including the technical program and workshops is strictly prohibited. This includes recordings by the audience for personal use.

Please note that the speakers listed below may change if circumstances arise. Accordingly, please monitor this web page for updated information.

Sunday, April 30
Afternoon
1:00pm - 4:50pm Workshops
6:00pm - 9:00pm Welcome Reception
Monday, May 1
Morning
7:00am - 8:00am Breakfast and Open Exhibits
8:00am - 8:15am Welcome and Introductions
Martha Yates, PIUG Planning & Program Chair
8:15am - 9:30am Keynote Talk:  Patenting Actions that Speak Louder than Words
Mike Pellegrino, Pellegrino & Associates
9:30am - 10:00am The Green Perspective
Devin Salmon, IFI Claims Patent Services
10:00am - 10:30am Break and Exhibits
10:30am - 11:00am

Searching Antibody-Drug Conjugates in CAS STNext®

Mike Axton, CAS
11:00am - 11:45am Unconference Session Number 1
Monday, May 1
Afternoon
11:45am - 12:45pm Lunch and PIUG Award Presentations
12:45pm - 1:15pm

Writing AI Claims

Michael Carey, F. Chau & Associates

1:15pm - 2:15pm

AI: Will it help or hurt?

Martha Yates, Nils Newman, & others

2:15pm - 3:15pm Break and Exhibits
3:15pm - 3:45pm

Advanced Search Techniques in the CAS MARPAT Markush Chemical Structure Database

David Saari, CAS

3:45pm - 4:30pm Unconference Session Number 2
4:30pm - 4:45pm Wrap-up
6:00pm - 9:30pm Evening Activities with Food & Beverages
Tuesday, May 2
Morning
7:00am - 8:00am Breakfast and Open Exhibits
8:00am - 8:15am Welcome Remarks
8:15am - 8:45am Back to Basics: Why Patent Documentation Standards Matter (virtual only)
Stephen Adams, Magister Ltd.
8:45am - 9:15am Boolean or ML-based search?--Both!
Heiko Wongel
9:15am - 9:35am

How Do I Deliver My Search Results?

Matt Eberle and Diane Webb, BizInt Solutions, Inc.  

9:35am - 10:15am Break and Exhibits
10:15am - 10:35am

Silver Talk 2

PatSnap

10:35am - 10:55am

Aptean GenomeQuest Sequence & Full Text Document Searching

Stephen Allen, Aptean GenomeQuest

10:55am - 11:15am

Silver Talk 4

Minesoft

11:15am - 12:00pm Unconference Session Number 3
Tuesday, May 2
Afternoon
12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch and Exhibits
1:00pm - 1:30pm

Ten Years of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system: a historical perspective and future developments

Jose Alconchel Ungria, EPO and Derris Banks, USPTO 

1:30pm - 2:15pm Unconference Session Number 4
2:15pm - 3:00pm Break and Exhibits
3:00pm - 3:30pm How Far Patent Searching Has Evolved 
Ron Kaminecki, Kaminecki IP
3:30pm - 4:15pm Unconference Session Number 5
4:15pm - 4:30pm Wrap-up and Closing Remarks
Wednesday, May 3
7:00am - 8:00am  Breakfast 
8:00am - 8:50am  EPO & USPTO Workshop 
9:00am - 3:00pm CAS STNext Patent Forum
CAS

Conference Abstracts and Biographies

Keynote Talk: Patenting Actions that Speak Louder than Words

Mike Pellegrino, Pellegrino & Associates

Abstract

Edward Snowden rocked the world in 2013 revealing massive multi-government programs to collect and characterize massive amounts of data on world citizens. One purpose was to characterize behaviors, classify those behaviors, and act on behaviors classified as a threat to national security. Born out of the 9/11 attacks, this type of signals intelligence attempted to bypass massive gaps in human intelligence that failed to identify the attacks. Signals intelligence served as the backbone of multi-billion dollar investments to better understand and respond to world threats in a scalable, reliable, cost-effective manner.

The labor of a patent analyst is similar. While not commissioned CIA agents, patent analysts often have to discover competitive threats and market opportunities using laborious processes whose outcomes are analyst dependent, oftentimes with shrinking resource pools. In this session, Mike Pellegrino will present an emerging field of behavioral patent analysis that departs from customary textual analysis, demonstrating how scores of signals embedded in patenting data can help patent analysts produce consistent and defensible analysis outcomes using auditable data hiding in plain sight.

Biography

Mike Pellegrino is the Founder and President of Pellegrino & Associates, LLC (P&A), a boutique intellectual property (IP) valuation firm.  He has extensive experience valuing patents and other forms of IP, establishing royalty rates, and evaluating businesses. His company engagements number more than 400 for more than 200 clients, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to startups. Courts at the state and federal level, tax jurisdictions, and arbitration panels have accepted Mike’s work for issues including bankruptcy valuations, estate tax valuations, copyright infringement claims, trade secret misappropriation claims, patent infringement claims, breach of contract claims and others. He is the author of first and second editions of BVR’s Guide to Intellectual Property Valuation, with more than 1,000 copies in circulation among attorneys, tech transfer officers, business valuation firms, competing IP valuation firms, and more. In addition, his finance- and software-related articles appear in internationally and nationally recognized outlets.

Mike has taught IP valuation concepts to officials from the governments of Brazil, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Thailand, Guatemala, and New Zealand on behalf of the U.S. State Department. He has counseled and testified before legislators about valuation issues. He was also instrumental in helping to change Indiana law regarding the valuation of embedded application software for personal property tax reporting purposes and for the taxation of patent-derived income.

In addition to his valuation expertise, Mike developed a state-of-the-art patent analytics tool that provides key insights and intelligence into the patent landscape. This system removes information asymmetry rampant in the patent marketplace by consolidating millions of disparate records into a user-friendly database.

His educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Indiana Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in business administration from Ball State University. He also completed additional accounting coursework sufficient to fulfill the academic requirements for an undergraduate accounting degree.

The Green Perspective

Devin SalmonIFI CLAIMS Patent Services

Abstract

As pressure to achieve net zero mounts, businesses have been pledging resources and promising behavior modifications to reduce the carbon footprint of their goods and services. Their public proclamations are encouraging. But how can stakeholders gauge whether companies are putting some of their revenue where their rhetoric is on the sustainability front? One way: tracking green patents. In this presentation, IFI CLAIMS’ Devin Salmon will discuss how green patents can be used to measure whether a company meets sustainable development and corporate governance goals or makes the grade for ESG investments. A case study, done in partnership with IALE Tecnología, on earth drilling and renewable energy patent applications in the U.S. offers a compelling demonstration for how such an analysis can be structured.

Biography

Devin Salmon is currently a Product Manager at IFI CLAIMS. Devin has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She began her career at the USPTO as an examiner, followed by a short stint as an Applications Engineer working for a small microfluidics company. In 2014, she joined IP.com as a Patent Analyst delivering novelty, FTO, and landscape studies for commercial clients. While at IP.com she was also a Client Success Manager and served as the “Voice of the Customer” for the development and content teams. Equipped with this experience, she realized a key component of improving patent tools is to work from within the tool providers. She has also served as a guest lecturer on patent information usage for university students, ran patent search basics training workshops, and spoke to a variety of audiences about leveraging AI for patent information users.

Searching Antibody-Drug Conjugates in CAS STNext®

Mike Axton, CAS

Abstract

Bioconjugation, the combination of chemistry and biology, is common in modern scientific breakthroughs. However, finding bioconjugate information can be challenging. In this session, we share practices for finding highly relevant information in CAS STNext on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Learn about:

  • Indexing practices of ADCs in CAS STNext databases
  • How to search for ADC payloads
  • How to search for ADC linkers
  • How to search for ADC antibodies

Biographiy

Mike is a CAS Customer Success Specialist, supporting federal accounts in North America. He has 9 years’ experience as a patent search specialist with strong expertise in scientific information retrieval, including chemistry, biotechnology, and materials science. Mike is located near Washington DC and has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.

Unconference Session Number 1

Writing AI Claims

Michael Care, F. Chau & Associates

Abstract

TBD.

Biography

Currently Not Available

AI: Will it help or hurt? 

Moderator: Martha Yates, Bayer

Panelists: Nils Newman, Search Technology, Jonathan Skovholt, Ensemble IP and others

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence has long had the potential to radically impact how people analyze patent information.  However, so far, the impact of AI has been limited.  

If the hype is to be believed, the AI innovations of the last few years appear to be quite different and potentially impactful.  Will the new round of AI innovation actually change the day to day lives of PIUG members?  Will the change be helpful or will more time and effort be lost to "not quite ready" technologies?

This panel discussion with AI developers and PUIG members addresses the current state of AI and the pro's and con's of AI in Patent Analysis.  The session will include an open discussion with the audience.

Biographies

Currently Not Available

Advanced Search Techniques in the CAS MARPAT Markush Chemical Structure Database

David Saari, CAS IP Services, CAS

Abstract

Advanced search techniques in the CAS Markush collection can be used to improve search precision, enhance search efficiency, or overcome limits built into the search system. These techniques apply to the MARPAT database on STNext®. Examples of advanced techniques to increase precision include subset searching, especially sequential subset searches with multiple query structures. Search failures from “query structure too complicated” sometimes can be eliminated, and poor quality results having too many “iteration incomplete” answers can be improved (often significantly). A search in different Markush structure records (MSTR) can be used to identify patent documents indexed for related compounds like a starting material or intermediate and a separate reaction product. Match level can be used to expand or focus search results. The order of execution of subset searches can impact search quality (“iteration incompletes”) and hit highlighting in the final answer.

Biography

David Saari is an original member of PIUG. Currently, he is a Senior Scientist in CAS IP Services, CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. David is registered to practice as an Agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Unconference Session Number 2

Back to Basics; Why Patent Documentation Standards Matter.

Stephen Adams, Magister Ltd.

Abstract

Most patent information specialists will have a basic understanding of the operation of WIPO standards for the production and exchange of patent information data.  Typically, we first learn about country codes (ST.3), INID codes for front page data (ST.9) and kind-of-document codes (ST.16). However, there are many other standards which operate ‘under the radar’ of the average patent database user, yet these can have a profound influence upon the usability and interoperability of patent data, and upon the efficiency of our searches.  This is particularly the case whenever different patent authorities may legitimately implement the same standard in a different way, depending upon their interpretation of the requirements.  This paper will review how the major documentation-related patent standards operate today, and some of the pitfalls which can arise when the standards are interpreted by patent offices, data architects and database users.

Biography

Stephen Adams is the managing director of Magister Ltd., a UK-based consultancy specialising in patents information.  Mr. Adams is a Qualified Patent Information Professional (number 20190044100092) and holds a B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Bristol and an M.Sc. in Information Science from City University, London, as well as professional membership of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).  He was the representative for UK user groups on the information sub-committee of the Standing Advisory Committee to the EPO (SACEPO/PDI) for many years, as well as contributing to the work of the Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) on behalf of the PIUG.  He is currently a member of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Patents and Related Matters (CPRM).  He is the author of three editions of “Information Sources in Patents”, the most recent being published in September 2020 by Walter de Gruyter KG.  He received the IPI Award in 2012 for outstanding contribution to patent information.

Boolean or ML-based search?--Both!

Heiko Wongel

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the rapidly growing amount of patent documentation is no longer manageable with conventional search methods. During the last couple of years, various machine learning (ML) tools and methods have arrived on the market and they each present their own potential solutions for reducing human effort in searching large amounts of patent data. 

Users however often feel uneasy with using ML tools, which are perceived as a black box. 

We explain a promising concept of combining ML-based searches with elements of a Boolean search, aiming to address the patent searchers’ reservations and uncertainties. We demonstrate how this concept is put into practice in the new search tool „INTERGATOR Patent Search“ . 

Biography

Heiko Wongel is a freelance patent information analyst and consultant based in Hamburg, Germany.

He holds a physics degree from the University of Hamburg. He started his career in the patent world in 1990 as a patent examiner in the fields of lasers and electro-optics at the European Patent Office in The Hague. In 1999 he moved to the classification department. He headed this department from 2009 to 2011. From 2011 to February 2020 he was the director of the patent information promotion directorate in the Vienna office of the EPO in charge of promotion, marketing and feature planning for the EPO’s patent information tools, the organisation of patent information events as well as user support and training of patent information users. Since 2021 he has been a member of the Global Advisory Council of Sagacious IP.

How Do I Deliver My search Results?

Matt Eberle and Diane WebbBizInt Solutions, Inc.

Abstract

Once you have conducted the perfect query and analyzed the results, the final step is to deliver a concise and effective report to your clients and colleagues. What are your options for delivering integrated patent, chemistry, and IP sequence search results?  What are the capabilities and limitations of delivering reports in different formats, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, web browser, etc.?  Should your report be interactive -- with links to further information, filtering options, and editing capabilities? How do you show new information in updated reports?  How do you add your own comments and analysis?  And what's the value of including visualizations to your text/tabular report?

We'll discuss some of the options and trade-offs, with examples from BizInt Smart Charts and other reports that we've seen over the years.

Biographies

Matt Eberle is the Lead Developer, Analytics and Custom Solutions at BizInt Solutions, Inc. and helps customers use the BizInt Smart Charts and VantagePoint tools to create new solutions to address their IP reporting challenges and problems.

Diane Webb is founder and President of BizInt Solutions, with over 25 years of experience talking to BizInt Smart Charts customers about their needs for creating IP reports.

Silver Talk 2

PatSnap

Abstract

TBD

Biography

Currently Not Available

Aptean GenomeQuest Sequence & Full Text Document Searching

Stephen Allen, Aptean GenomeQuest

Abstract

Aptean GenomeQuest has expanded our search capabilities to include Full Text Document searching. Along with our best in class sequence searching, we have added the ability to search through 24.7+ million Life Science Patent documents. Please join us to see the integration of sequence and Full Text document searching on the GenomeQuest platform!

Biography

Steve Allen joined Aptean GenomeQuest in September of 2017, he is the Senior Solutions Consultant for GenomeQuest & LifeQuest. Steve previously worked at Dupont and his background includes work in a patent group and work as a computational biologist in an agricultural discovery group. Steve has been working with sequence data of one form or another for over 30 years.

Silver Talk 4

Minesoft

Abstract

TBD

Biography

Currently Not Available

Unconference Session Number 3

Ten Years of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) System: A Historical Perspective and Future Developments

Jose Alconchel Ungria, EPO and Derris Bank, USPTO

Abstract

2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system, a collaborative partnership by the USPTO and the EPO to build up a powerful patent classification system. During the past decade, there has been an incredible amount of work and development of the CPC.  The CPC has been constantly maintained and improved, with coverage expanding to 37 patent offices, and approximately sixty-eight (68) million patent documents.  CPC is kept up-to-date to accommodate new emerging technologies and other advancements in technology.  Come hear about the latest developments in international coordination, maintenance, and future improvements to CPC.

Biography

Currently Not Available

Unconference Session Number 4

How Far Patent Searching has Evolved

Ron Kaminecki, Kaminecki IP

Abstract

Changes in the law dealing with intellectual property can be traced back to attempts at solving problems as the technologies evolve. Though most changes start out as good ideas and have evolved into new ways of prosecuting patent applications, to citing precedent, to eventually drafting rules and procedures for doing things differently. This presentation will discuss how these changes evolved and what the effects have been on patents and patent searching.

Biography

Ron Kaminecki has worked with technical, scientific, and legal researchers in various capacities, as Manager, Advisor, and Director, mostly at Dialog under its various owners, and has been employed at several companies, always in the area of patent information. Currently, he is consulting at Kaminecki IP LLC and teaching patent searching at DePaul and the University of New Hampshire law schools. Ron is a Patent Attorney with a BS in Chemistry, MS in Computer Science, JD with a Certificate in Patent Law and is also a Qualified Patent Information Professional.

Unconference Session Number 5

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